1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-context launch management method, system, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
The amount and types of data handled by information processing systems of corporations or the like are steadily increasing. In accordance therewith, the procedures followed by system users for performing various processes on a computer tend to become complicated. Therefore, a technology for linking application programs has been demanded particularly by users who run a plurality of objects (application programs) distributed over a network to perform processes and make use of the results of the processes.
Under normal conditions, however, a plurality of application programs running on a computer system operate independently. These application programs remain indifferent to each other and seldom share property information. For example, Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs and Java (registered trademark) applets derive environmental information from different sources. In any case, there has been no method for enabling application programs to share information and link with each other.
Under these circumstances, object-oriented programming technology, component technology, and various other technologies have been developed. Thanks to these technologies as well as the GUI technology, efforts are now increasingly made to provide linkage among application programs and reduce the operating burden on users. For example, it is now possible to open a context menu which lists “Print”, “Copy”, “Cut”, and other available processing options when a user clicks a certain item displayed by a GUI. Through this context menu, it is possible to cause an application program (object) appropriate for the processing option selected from the context menu to run (or launch) (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 7-73009).
However, a technology for performing an in-context launch process to directly start (launch) another application program from a GUI window of a running application program or for repeating the above launch process have not been made available. To offer this technology, it is necessary to furnish all application programs with a launch program, which the administration manager function of each of the application programs comprises, and repository data and other data required for in-context launching.
When, for instance, an administration manager function is made to provide integrated control over storage subsystems, backup/recovery products, database products, application products, and other products, there will be an enormous number and variety of application programs targeted for in-context launching, and the application programs will be located at various locations within the system. If an attempt is made to implement the above-mentioned launch program and repository data within each application program, an excessive burden would be unavoidably imposed on application program development, maintenance, and management.
As such being the case, an in-context launch management method enabling linkage among application programs and expediting and facilitating starting (launching) of an application program matching the user's intention while minimizing the burden on application program development, maintenance, and management has been called for.
The present invention is therefore made to solve the foregoing problems and it is an object of the invention to provide an in-context launch management method, system, and storage medium.